Who murdered the wife of Marshal Smigly-Rydz

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Steve
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Who murdered the wife of Marshal Smigly-Rydz

#1

Post by Steve » 24 Aug 2016, 17:20

Whether Smigly-Rytz was ever married to Marta Thomas-Zaleska is a moot point. Prior to their meeting in 1918 she had married an officer in Russian’s Imperial Army but the marriage failed. Because of this in most references she is described as Rytz’s partner but one source I have come across says they were married within months of their meeting. This was presumably in a civil ceremony as they were Catholics. They were apparently a devoted couple and she took no part in government or army affairs.

She escaped from Poland in September 1939 and went to France living in Monte Carlo on a small pension provided by the UK Government. In 1951 at the scene of a car crash in the Maritime Alps her headless body was found. The body had been stuffed into a sack and her head was later found many miles away.

I have been unable to find any explanation in English on who was responsible for this bizarre crime but I know there are some articles in Polish on the crime. Can any of our Polish friends shed any light on the matter?

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Re: Who murdered the wife of Marshal Smigly-Rydz

#2

Post by wm » 24 Aug 2016, 19:55

There is no explanation because simply there is no explanation. It was a perfect crime.

As far as I know her body was dismembered with a thin and sharp tool and the parts scattered over a large area. And they say the largest part was found by kids.

As to the marriage, most likely it wasn't a civil ceremony, for this they would have to declare apostasy as I understand it. The usual solution was to change denomination, for this reason there were lots of Calvinists around (for example Józef Beck).

There weren't devoted couple, Śmigły was devoted, she wasn't. And nobody who knew her personally liked her, or had a good opinion of her.

Maybe she had a pension, but I doubt it. She was selling bit by bit their private property (she was able to send it abroad when she fled Warsaw), and state property (including historical artifacts of great value) she simply had stolen.
In France she befriended some shady characters, including smugglers, so the murder is not quite mysterious, only the perpetrator isn't known.


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Re: Who murdered the wife of Marshal Smigly-Rydz

#3

Post by Steve » 25 Aug 2016, 01:23

Thanks, very interesting, it seems that she was a woman of the shadows who must have seriously annoyed someone. If she was involved with criminals I doubt that this was because of a personality change on leaving Poland so you have to wonder what was going on in Poland.

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Re: Who murdered the wife of Marshal Smigly-Rydz

#4

Post by wm » 14 Sep 2016, 13:31

It is said she could have had some mental health problems, because of her childless marriage or some other reasons.
"Criminals" is maybe a little too big word. In the destroyed-by-war Europe everyone who could was smuggling something, including American and British officers, and they were seen by their compatriots more like heroes than criminals.

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Re: Who murdered the wife of Marshal Smigly-Rydz

#5

Post by Steve » 29 May 2018, 00:00

In 1951 there was a violent burgulary at her home and the diary of Smigly-Rytz was stolen but I can't find out if the burgulary was before or after the murder. Was she killed because of what was in the diary?

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Re: Who murdered the wife of Marshal Smigly-Rydz

#6

Post by crolick » 30 May 2018, 20:21

https://dorzeczy.pl/historia/39333/Kto- ... kowej.html
Use Google translate.
It should give you pretty good details of the murder.

Hope that helps!

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Re: Who murdered the wife of Marshal Smigly-Rydz

#7

Post by wm » 30 May 2018, 21:10

The diary (supposedly a bunch of random notes, opinions and golden sayings) is most likely an invention of professional conspiratorial theorists.
We don't know as a fact if there was a burglary or even where she is interred. The only source about the murder are contemporary French tabloids, and basically nothing more.
The French police will release all known facts in 2022.

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Re: Who murdered the wife of Marshal Smigly-Rydz

#8

Post by Steve » 31 May 2018, 03:21

Many thanks crolick the article was very interesting though it differs on a few details from the article I originally read over a year ago. Very likely she was involved in the black market. I would guess that not many robberies in the South of France in that period ended up with a dismembered corpse and a missing head so you have to wonder why this one.

The burglary is mentioned in a work on prewar Poland to explain the lack of documents stemming directly from the the Marshall and having to rely on other peoples accounts or opinions on what motivated his actions, the writer seems to know her onions. If the burglar was French why would he bother to take something written in a language he was unlikely to be able to read. If the burglar was Polish why break in and take a bunch of unimportant papers or whatever.

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Re: Who murdered the wife of Marshal Smigly-Rydz

#9

Post by wm » 31 May 2018, 12:18

All the papers were confiscated by the police, so we really don't know what was there.

The dismembered corpse and the missing head shows that the criminal was a person of limited means, incapable even to dig a sufficient large hole in the ground to hide the corpse properly.
A real criminal would dump the body in the ocean, but a car (and/or a boat) was needed for that, the perpetrator clearly couldn't afford them.

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Re: Who murdered the wife of Marshal Smigly-Rydz

#10

Post by Steve » 01 Jun 2018, 03:38

An interesting theory.

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